Lost in the Woods
by Rhov
Summary: Separated from the team, Natsu and Gray roam some enchanted woods, desperate to get back before they kill one another ... or worse, before they fall for each other!
1. Careful Not to Lose the Way

_A/N: This is a collaboration with becausewhenyoupracticeyouimprove for Tumblr's_ _ **Gratsu Writer X Artist Challenge**. It'll be 6 chapters total. It was originally posted on Tumblr as a picture book. If you would like to see the art that goes with it, please check it out:  
wildrhov =dot= tumblr =dot= com/post/147139656504/lost-in-the-woods_

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 **Lost in the Woods**

a _Fairy Tail_ fanfic

collaboration with Rhov and becausewhenyoupracticeyouimprove

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Chapter 1

 **Careful Not to Lose the Way**

Lucy and Erza looked over a map in the shade of towering oaks.

"If we continue along this path, we should reach the end of the woods by tomorrow evening," Lucy declared, pointing out the squiggle on the map.

"I've heard bad stories about these woods," Erza muttered. "People get lost in here. We need to keep to the path."

Lucy shivered. "It's not _dangerous_ , is it?"

"No reports of animal attacks."

"Oh, thank goodness!"

Meanwhile, behind them, Natsu looked around. They had stopped after a few hours walking in the woods. The small lunch they had earlier was starting to hit him. He looked to the girls, but they were focused on the map and figuring out their route. He did not want to bother them.

"Hey, Happy." The Exceed flew up to him, humming questioningly. Natsu dropped his voice. "I _really_ gotta go! Can you hold my bag?"

"Aye!"

Natsu slipped his rucksack off of his shoulders and passed it over. "If they figure it out, go on ahead. I'll catch up with you."

"Are you sure, Natsu?"

"Hey, I can smell you guys. Don't worry."

Happy grinned with confidence. "Aye."

Natsu ran off into the bushes and past dark, ominous trees, plunging in deep enough to find a place to relieve nature.

Gray had been zoning out, leaving the map to Lucy and not caring what Natsu and Happy were up to. Sometimes he felt like he was just tagging along, not really needed. However, as he saw Natsu run off, his brow tensed. He had just overheard Erza talk about people getting lost in the woods. If anyone would be stupid enough to do that, it would be Natsu.

Lucy and Erza began walking again. Happy flew along. Were they unaware of Natsu leaving? Gray almost shouted out to them, but he sighed. He would be the one sent to find Natsu anyway, since he was a guy and Natsu likely left to pee. So without saying anything, Gray stepped off the road and followed where he had seen Natsu running off. He figured it would not take long. All he needed to do was get close enough to shout out, "Hey, we're leaving," and they would be back on the road.

He saw Natsu at last, much farther in than he expected. Gray heard the splashing of urine on fallen leaves and paused.

Natsu glared over his shoulder. "Are you a pervy peeking tom as well as an exhibitionist? Give me some damn privacy, ice breath!"

Gray scoffed and turned around. "It's not like I haven't seen you taking a piss in the guild restroom."

"Voyeur!"

"Shut up! Just hurry. The girls are leaving."

"Then go back. I'll catch up."

"You'll get lost, because you're an idiot."

"Who's an idiot! You can't even figure out when a guy needs some _privacy_."

Gray heard feet crunching and turned around in time to see Natsu ready to punch him. He blocked with a small shield of ice.

"You're gonna be like that, huh, flame-brain?"

"If you're not going to leave, I'll have to knock you unconscious. Maybe I'll shit on your face so you learn…" His fist lit up on fire. "…it's rude to interrupt a guy who has to take a dump!"

They got into a brawl, flames and ice destroying the bushes around them. However, Natsu stopped and sniffed.

"Oh crap."

Gray cringed. "You didn't just shit your pants, did you?"

"No! I … I don't smell Lucy or Erza or Happy anymore." He sniffed deeper. "That's impossible. It's only been a few minutes."

"They couldn't have gone that far. Maybe the wind shifted."

Natsu frowned. "Hey, I still really need to take a dump. Go back to the road, see how far they went."

"Che! Fine! I don't want to smell your crap anyway."

Gray turned and walked back the way he came. He knew he had kept to a more-so-less straight path. At first he saw the footsteps he left behind in the mud, but those soon faded. Then he found his shirt stuck on a bush—when had he lost it?—but as he walked, he saw no road. He was sure it should have been here already. Maybe just a little more…

"Gray!"

A hand grabbed him and yanked him back. Gray crashed backward into Natsu's chest.

"What the hell are you…" His angry shout froze as he saw he was about to walk over a cliff. "No way. That was _definitely_ not there."

"I know." Natsu frowned as he glanced around the woods. "This smells wrong."

"Maybe it's your crap."

"Shut up, ice-jerk! I mean _everything_. I don't smell the others. I don't smell the berries that were here. This … it's like it's not even the same area of the forest." Natsu saw the shirt Gray held in his hand. "Where did you find that?"

Gray thumbed back. "I must have stripped while searching for you."

Natsu's brow tensed. "You were already shirtless when I left the group. You threw that shirt off an hour ago."

"What?" Gray looked down at the shirt. "That's … impossible. If I took it off that long ago, it should be miles behind us. What is it doing here?"

Natsu glared around the woods. "Gray, as much as I hate to say this … don't leave my side."

He laughed and teased, "Aww, is the _widdle dwagon swayer_ scared?"

"Shut the hell up! I think these woods are enchanted. If we split up, we might end up miles apart. Also…" He looked up at Gray with a worried expression. "We're totally lost!"

Gray looked down the steep cliff and realized he was right. This was definitely not the same area of the woods, and they had no idea how to even find the road now.

Gray ran his hand through his hair. "Dammit, Erza's gonna kill us."

 **Next Chapter: "The Woods Are Just Trees"**


	2. The Woods Are Just Trees

Chapter 2

 **The Woods Are Just Trees**

Natsu squinted as he looked up a tower made of ice that glittered in the shadows of the forest.

"See anything?"

Gray stood at the top of the lookout tower, peering around. The sun was shining beautifully, birds flew above the bright tops of trees that stretched on and on, endless bubbles of fluttering green, as far as he could see. He knew this was a large forest; he overheard Lucy say it would take two days to cross it. However, he saw no end and no shadow that would have been the road that weaved through the woods.

"Maybe a little higher," he mused.

Gray pounded his fist into his hand, and the lookout tower rose more, soaring high. He was now twice as high up above the trees. He pulled out a compass and made sure it was pointing east. That _should_ be the way to the village they were heading to.

"Wait. I think I see—"

"Gray!" shrieked Natsu.

He heard it a second later. The tower was cracking. Gray grabbed a guardrail as the structure swayed and began to topple over. To his surprise, even the ice up here on the platform had webbings of cracks spreading out as the entire ice tower began to shatter like glass.

"This is impossible," he whispered. There was no way his ice could just crumble like this. No way!

The tower leaned heavily over in a slow fall. Gray's stomach surged. He had to think fast.

"Ice-Make: Slide!"

Just before the tower fully fell, a slide formed, and Gray leaped on, sliding toward the ground safely while hearing his creation crash into the trees behind him. Halfway down the slide, it too began to crumble.

"Dammit! Ice-Make: Tarzan!"

Okay, so he _totally_ made up this one, imagining somehow swinging from vine to vine, but the vines were ice. Luckily, as he fell on the demolishing slide and into the shadow of ominous branches, he saw the blue flash on a branch, grabbed it, and began to swing. Gray reached out, and another ice vine formed, letting him swing to the next tree. On the third vine, the ice snapped, and he was falling once again.

"Shit! Ice … Ice-Make…" _Think, Gray! Think!_

Before he hit the ground, someone caught him. Both went falling, but those powerful arms had broken the worst of the fall. They slid over leaves and finally came to a stop. Gray rose onto his hands and knees and looked down to see Natsu, sweaty from racing after the tower in order to rescue Gray. Now Natsu was on his back, leaves in his hair, face in pain, but as the tower and slide stopped crumbling and the forest went silent, his eyes opened. He smiled as he stared straight up into Gray's astonished face.

"Are you hurt?"

Gray blinked in confusion. Benumbed that Natsu, of all people, had saved him, he shook his head.

"That's good." He grinned in his wide, innocent way, and Gray felt a flush warm his cheeks. "Now, get the hell off of me."

Gray jolted, realized their positions, and scrambled off. Natsu sat up, rubbed out his shoulder, and fluffed through his hair to get the leaves out.

Gray looked at the twisted debris of ice. "What the hell did you do to my tower?"

Natsu froze in confusion. "I didn't even touch it. I thought you must have built it too high, so that made it fall."

"The base was wide enough, and there was no breeze to blow it over."

"No breeze? There was a _horrible_ wind, practically a tornado. You didn't feel it up there?"

Gray looked back at the tower in confusion. How could there have been a wind on the forest floor but not above the treetops? Plus, he had not heard any leaves rustling. A strong breeze would have rustled the branches. Wind did not mysterious blow down on the forest floor but not _above_ the forest canopy.

"This whole forest is messed up. It's like even if you go _up_ , you move to another spot of the woods."

Natsu laughed. "At least you came down in the right place. Did you see anything?"

"I thought I did to the east. We'll head there." Gray pulled out his compass. He arched an eyebrow at it, gave it a shake, looked around, and then glared at the compass again.

"This makes no sense. The tower fell in the direction of what I saw to the east."

"So?"

Gray showed Natsu the compass. " _East_ points toward the base of the tower, the _opposite_ direction that it fell in."

"Do you mean it switched directions?"

"I mean compasses obviously don't work here." Gray shoved it deep into his pocket. "Dammit, how are we supposed to get out of here when we can't even follow a straight direction? What the hell is _wrong_ with these woods?"

"Calm down. They're enchanted. I've heard stories about these sorts of magical forests. If you get too far apart, they'll put you somewhere else. You must have gone so high up, you passed some sort of barrier and got switched around. It really is a good thing you landed close to me."

Gray glared over at Natsu, but he had to admit, if he was going to be lost in the woods like this, it was better to have someone with him. Even if it was a flame-brain like Natsu.

"You saw something to the east. That's also the direction to the client, right? So we'll simply keep heading east, no matter what way the compass says is east. The woods will probably twist us around, but we just have to trust my nose and your compass."

Gray ran his hand through his hair. "Yeah, that's all we can do. Stay calm, keep on moving."

They got up, and Gray followed the compass to the east. Natsu walked beside him, determined not to get separated. However, as hours passed and the forest grew darker, Natsu's pace began to slow. Gray kept stopping for him to catch up. Natsu looked uncomfortable, he kept holding his stomach, and Gray wondered if he was about to get sick.

"Are you okay?"

Natsu frowned, but he rubbed his stomach again. "Before I left to take a dump, I gave Happy my pack to hold. It had my food. I haven't eaten in a while."

"Sheesh, we had lunch. Can't you wait for dinner?"

He frowned in shame. "Yeah … sorry … it wasn't a big lunch. I gave part of my food to Happy since he was still hungry. I often give portions of my food to Happy and just eat a little snack afterward."

Gray pouted. Hearing how Natsu cared so much for Happy touched his heart. Natsu looked worried now, and Gray guessed it was from thinking about his blue friend. He pulled his pack around, yanked out a granola bar, and shoved it over at the Dragon Slayer.

"Take it. I don't need it."

"Wh-what? No! I mean, that's _your_ food."

"Yeah, and we're stuck together with just my supplies, so we have to split. When we get out of these woods, you owe me, got it?" he said sharply. "But for now … for now … you need it, I don't." He thrust the granola bar at him and shouted, "Just take the damn food, flame-brain!"

Natsu drooled as he snatched the sweet snack away, opened the wrapper, and chomped into granola rolled with dried berries, nuts, and honey. Gray saw him smile with joy, and he began to blush. What an idiot, looking so happy just over a little bit of food!

"Hey, we'll walk another hour, but we should stop before it gets too dark. We'll see if we can catch anything to eat."

"I heard a river up ahead," Natsu said with a mouth full of granola.

"A river? That's helpful. You can follow rivers out of forests. At this point, I'll be happy to make it out even if we end up in totally the wrong spot. Okay, we'll make camp near the river and use that to guide us out."

"Sounds good." Natsu burned the granola wrapper to not leave behind trash. "Thanks for the food, Gray. I really needed that."

Natsu grinned joyfully again, and Gray felt heat in his cheeks. He looked sharply away and walked a little faster. The sooner they got out of these woods, the better.

 **Next Chapter: "One Midnight Gone"**

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This is an Artist/Writer collab on Tumblr. To see the actual picture book, either see the original post here:  
wildrhov =dot= tumblr =dot= com/post/147848230864/lost-in-the-woods-chapter-2-the-woods-are-just

Or you can read it on Wattpad or AO3, which both allow images to be included:  
AO3: archiveofourown =dot= org/works/7440148/chapters/17205595  
Wattpad: wattpad =dot= com/288109197-lost-in-the-woods-the-woods-are-just-trees


	3. One Midnight Gone

_This story was meant to be a picture book and has some great art already, but life gets busy for us all. So I went ahead and drew a scene for this chapter._

 _wildrhov =dot= tumblr =dot= com/post/157244245571/_

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Chapter 3

 **One Midnight Gone**

As night darkened the woods, Natsu sat close to a campfire, occasionally eating the flames. Gray had used his knowledge of survival in the wilderness to make a fire the old-fashion way, just so Natsu could eat it, since he could not eat his own flames. Seeing Natsu snacking on the fire was always such madness to Gray, especially when they were kids. He used to hate flames, being reminded of the fires that broke out in his village when Deliora attacked. Now … he did not mind so much.

They had a surprisingly hard time trying to find food. Despite both of their best efforts, the river that ran through the forest seemed to be devoid of fish. Although they sometimes saw birds in the trees, they found no nests for eggs. They also saw none of the animals that would normally be in the woods like this. Only a few plants were edible. Gray managed to find enough dandelions, wild onions, cress, wood sorrel, and plantain to make salads, and he boiled some of the roots to make a mash that tasted a bit like potato, with the onions mixed in to make a fairly descent—if scant—meal.

Now the forest was dark, and only their little fire alleviated the moist chill of the nearby river. Fog was beginning to rise and roll over the ground. Gray knew it was going to be a miserable night.

"We should sleep and get an early start," he recommended.

"Sleep where?" Natsu asked with a surly pout.

Gray was about to snap at him to _obviously_ sleep anywhere he darn well pleased, but he quickly realized that Natsu had lost all of his gear. It was not just his food that was gone, but his sleeping bag and clothes as well.

"Look, I don't care if you share my sleeping bag," he said, trying to shrug it off with a hint of annoyance, although his stomach began to twist up at the idea of Natsu sleeping right against him.

Natsu recoiled at the idea. "No way! It'd probably be colder sleeping beside you than sleeping in the middle of the river."

Gray glared, feeling hurt that his kind offer was rejected so sharply. "Fine. Do whatever you want. Idiot."

He turned away, scowling to himself. Let the stupid bastard freeze! Hell, with his flames, he probably would not even feel cold. He shouldn't feel even a _little_ pity for the flame-brain stubborn-ass jerk.

As Gray pulled out his sleeping bag, the camp area was suddenly pitched into darkness.

"Natsu, what the hell?" he cried out. "Stop eating up all the flames."

"That wasn't me. The fire just went out." He breathed a burst of flames into the pit they made, and the fire blazed even brighter than before. "Your campfires suck, ice princess."

"Screw you," he grumbled, too tired to banter with him. He just wanted to sleep and get out of this forest as quickly as possible. Being alone with Natsu had to be the worst thing ever.

Gray crawled into his sleeping bag and fell asleep almost instantly. In no time, Natsu heard snoring. He had been feeling horrible all day. Gray was lost in here because he went searching for him. They were running out of food because he left his pack with Happy. Now, he did not have clothes to change into, a toothbrush, or even a blanket to sleep in. He hated relying on others, yet now he was reliant on Gray's generosity. It was a blow to his pride, especially since it was his rival helping him out.

At the same time, he rather liked that he and Gray could work together like this. They fought so often, so it was nice to have occasional reminders that they were such close friends, almost like brothers.

Which made the fluttering in his stomach a horrible thing to deal with. How was it that he _liked_ relying on Gray so much? Why was he watching him now, gazing at the way he slept, and his heart raced a little faster?

Suddenly, the fire went out again. Natsu jolted. That should _not_ have happened! He had felt no wind, nothing to blow the flames out. He had been the one to gather the firewood, so he knew they were good logs and should burn easily. He breathed more flames onto the wood.

Not even five minutes later, the fire snuffed out again. Natsu almost shouted in anger—his flames _should not_ go out like that—but he heard Gray snore a little. He slammed his mouth shut and blew again. Not even two minutes, and the flames went out. He blew yet again, and in under a minute the fire vanished.

"The hell're ya doin'?" Gray grumbled, half-awake now and pissed that Natsu was messing around.

"The forest keeps putting out the fire." He knew that sounded crazy, but these woods were magical anyway. Maybe it just did not like campfires.

"Leave it," Gray murmured, curling on his side deeper.

"But it's cold," Natsu protested.

"Then get in here, sleep, and shut up."

Natsu's cheeks blushed. "G-get in here?"

Gray let out a sleepy growl. "Stop being stubborn. It's just sleeping. If your weak ass hates the cold, just shut up and sleep with me."

Natsu gulped hard and felt a panic roiling deep in his gut. Sleep … with Gray? That sounded so weird, so wrong. His heart was racing again. It was _just Gray_ , though. It should not be this strange. Why was he being so nice all of a sudden? It seemed too bizarre, yet it also made Natsu really happy.

As much as his instincts wanted to protest, he did not want to cause Gray to lose sleep. He was already doing a lot to help Natsu, sharing his food, now offering to share his bedding. Natsu realized with humbleness—that he absolutely _hated_ to feel—that he really was helpless in this situation.

"Just this once," he muttered.

He removed his shoes, shirt, and any extra clothes. He rolled his scarf up as a pillow and cautiously slithered down into the sleeping bag. He tried his hardest not to press up against Gray's bare back and to keep his face turned away.

Sleeping … under the stars … with Gray!

Natsu bit his lip to hold back the weird happiness he felt deep inside, but finally he whispered, "Thanks, Gray."

"Yeah," he said back, sounding nearly asleep.

Natsu decided to let him rest peacefully. He said nothing else and tried to ignore the fact that Gray's back was actually quite warm. However, he stared out at the shadows of the forest, trying to sort out this new fire growing in his chest.

Gray did not move or say anything more, hoping Natsu would just sleep, but his eyes stayed open. He really had thought Natsu would remain stubborn. Why had he accepted so easily? Now he felt the Dragon Slayer's buttock pressed against his, and although it was obvious Natsu was trying to keep some distance between them, once in a while when he shifted Gray felt the bare skin brush against his shoulder or spine.

He wondered if he would be able to sleep at all, knowing Natsu was right next to him.

The moonlight shined down on them, lying back-to-back in a sleeping bag, both with blushes on their cheeks and eyes open as their racing hearts chased away sleep.


End file.
